Monday, May 7, 2007

The bow (2005)

The bow (2005) (Korean) Wednesday, September 21, 2005 @ 9:50 AM

Okay this movie was a bit weird. I think you really need to open up your artistic views for movies like this one. The movie, directed by Kim Ki-duk, one of Korea's most promising and most original and visionary directors, is a movie that really brings up a lot of questions. I haven't seen all of Kim ki-duk's movies. But from what I've seen, his movies have very little dialog, and much of the emotion is conveyed solely by glances, gestures or actions. This particular movie is also unique as it has been shot on one location only.

The story evolves around a man of 60 and a girl of 17 who have been living together on a fishingboat. The old man regularly receives guests-fishers on his boat and we learn that he is a splendid marksman with his bow. He's also known for his unusual way of prediciting the future. If he needs to predict the future, he makes the girl swing on a "swing" that is hanging on the side of the boat in front of a drawing of a mystique god. He then aims and shoots 3 arrows on that picture while the girl swings across it. When all 3 arrows have been shot into that picture, she whispers something in his ear and that supposedly is the prediction he can tell to that fisher.

As the story develops we also learn that the old man is counting down days until the big wedding day. As the girl becomes 18 soon, he has marked that day to be their wedding day. Until she meets a young guest fisher and falls in love with his charms. The old man gets jealous and problems arise.

Even tho this was a very weird movie for me (maybe cus im western), I liked the way the story unfolded and how it was all shot in the open sea.